Tag Archives: Cooking

I have only tried it when I have been on holiday in Mexico & Miami, with it being served as Salsa Verde but now I am growing my own I have taken to trying any that fall off or get ripped off by the dogs.

Yes I know it seems like all I ever eat is pie.. But this is more like fish with mashed potato 🙂

Its a sad day when I make Fish Pie for one but that’s what I wanted for dinner and I was on my own so I decided to make an individual pie in one of my terracotta baking dishes, they really are handy as everything get cooked through and it retains its heat for a long time so even if you are a slow eater it stays hot unlike when you ladle a dollop of pie onto a plate and its cold in 5 minutes!

Hot!

Ingredients (for 1)

100 Grams FirmWhite Fish (I used Hake which I don’t recommend! Pollock or Coley work well or Line Caught Cod)

Sometimes I just feel like eating a simple pie- in fact most of the time I’d rather it without loads of Herbs, Spices & Wine.. I want a pie like they sell in the supermarket! So I make this..

Normally I use Frozen Short Crust Pastry for the base & Frozen Puff Pastry for the lid but as I had a bit of time on my hands I decided to try out Delia Smith‘s ‘Quick & Easy Flaky Pastry’ which I mentioned before in my Pie, Mash & Liquor post. It really is a good recipe & very simple- I will use it again. And I made a simple Suet Pastry for the base.. I love Suet Pastry as I love Dumplings!

This will be Breakfast for 2 people in the morning which I think is quite greedy- I tried to use just 4 Eggs but it didn’t fill the dish well enough, detox Monday! If you had more guests you could add extra ingredients but I think 6 eggs is sufficient for 4 people 🙂

I enjoyed this for Brunch, just a shame the grill isn’t working as i would have liked the top to go crispy!

Try to arrange the ingredients so they are equally spread out as you will be dividing it up and you want a bit of each ingredient in your piece!

You can substitute other kind of Sausage & Cheese, you can use Bread Cubes instead of Slices, you could add other Herbs, Spring Onions, Bell Peppers– whatever you like! I wanted to add Potato but didn’t have any 😦

I have noticed people searching for information on Sprouting so I thought I’d give a quick update to say I have Black Eyed Beans/Peas in soak now so I shall start them off sprouting in my BioSnacky Jar in the morning and I also have some White Beans in soak, that is all it says on the packet so I am not sure which white bean they are I will have to do some Google searches for images! I thought they may be Cannellini Beans but looking at photos of them they have a pink hue..

And just to re cap don’t sprout Kidney Beans (I noticed one search for that came up in my Blog Stats!)

Black Eyed Beans/Peas

White Beans

Today I managed to buy (on the Greek Side, Carrefour) a few new beans to try sprouting; Adzuki, Soya & Flageolet. They had lots of others I will try next time like Puy Lentils. I also restocked on Mung Beans!

I have the Adzuki & Soya Beans soaking now..

Soya Beans Soak

Soya Beans Start to Sprout

I let the Soya Beans sprout longer & I think this made them too tough- I just threw them on the vegetable patch! I think I will try them again but in a colander with a weight pressing down (like with Mung Beans)..

Adzuki Beans Soak

Adzuki Beans are still in the Bio Snacky jar- I’m not sure about these! I keep trying them but they aren’t my favourite..

The White Beans don’t seem to be doing very well, I have moved them to a colander as maybe they are cramped in the jam jar, a few of them are just starting to bulge where the sprout will be.. ** Well as an update they started to smell bad & I threw them away, I wonder if they had been treated which stopped them from growing **

White Beans in Colander

The Black Eye Beans/Peas are doing well, I went through picking the skins off as they are floating about when I rinse them, I ate a couple that were ready- they are nice..

Black Eyed Beans Some with Sprouts

Black Eyed Bean Sprout

Chick Peas- Good Size Sprouts

Chick Peas- Sprouted too Long

I can see why Chick Peas are one of the mostly popular sprouts.. I don’t even like Chick Peas normally but sprouted they taste different! They are nice raw on salad or also boiled for 5 minutes to have hot.. Don’t sprout them for too long, they tasted best when the sprouts were quite small!

I had some of the Flaky Pastry left in the freezer along with Suet Pastry I made the other week so I thought I’d get these out & try making some MiniPies in my Cupcake 12 hole tin. I used my same Pie and Mash Recipe that I have already written about but this time I used Lamb Mince as I also had some of that leftover. I couldn’t taste any difference so I think the moral of the story is use Beef as its cheaper and under all the Vinegar who is going to know what animal is in the pie!

Oh and I thought ‘I’ll just leave those for a few more minutes’ and wandered off, forgot about them & came back to find them a bit burnt, still I suppose they are more authentic that way!

And the Bain Marie is a must in future, I didn’t use a tray filled with water like last time and the suet pastry doesn’t stay as soft as last time..

There are lots of different recipes for Moussaka available- some with Potato, some without Potato. Some with Potato on top, some with Potato at the bottom. Some have Lamb, some have Beef.. Its a bit like Lasagne in that respect- everyone has ‘their’ version & these recipes create much debate on food forums across the internet! Well I don’t claim to know the answer, I have simply put together the bits I like and left outs the bits I’m not so keen on & hopefully I have made it look simple as its not a very difficult dish to prepare but lots of recipes for it that I have read seem a bit daunting.. Let me know what you think!

Ingredients (Serves 1)

Method

Crack an Egg into the Ramekin, sprinkle with Salt & Pepper & put a spoon of Butter on top of the Yoke

Place the Ramekin into a Roasting Tin/Oven Proof Dish & pour Boiling Water until it reaches half way up the side of the Ramekin (this is your Bain Marie)

Bake for 15 mins for a soft Yoke (give the tray a nudge near the end you want it to still wobble, its going to carry on cooking on your Plate..)

Meanwhile Toast & Butter some Bread

Breakfast for One

Or.. Double Trouble

Bathing time

Variations

This is where it becomes interesting…

I like to smear a blob of Marmite in the Ramekin before Cracking the Egg (I hear Miso Paste gives a nice alternative)

I have had it served with a spoonful of Caviar over the Yoke (not at home!)

Any kind of Cream can replace the Butter on top of the Yoke

Grated Cheese goes nicely over the top

Flakes of Smoked Fish are delicious at the bottom of the Ramekin before you crack in the Egg

I could literally go on and on and on with Variations but it would be better for you to experiment!

The only bad thing about this breakfast is washing up the Ramekin (your don’t have to wash up a Shell..) but this is what that leftover tray of boiling water is for!..

Get your Spoon out!

Washing Up 😦

NB

Keep an eye on the Egg and you can see just how done the Yoke is.. There’s No pesky shell in your way! So if it goes over done or you serve it & its like Jelly you should have gone to go to Specsavers..

A really easy recipe that’s good for using up all the vegetables I find at the bottom of the fridge, sometimes I’ll add some Leek or Tomatoes that are past using in a salad or sandwich, you could add some cubes of potato, peas, sweetcorn the list is endless really..

Staple Ingredients- Onion, Carrot, Celery

Ingredients (Serves 2)

For The Casserole

4 Good Quality Sausages (I use Pork but I’m sure Beef or Chicken would work equally well) Chopped into 3 or 4 pieces

Method

I used to start off heating Olive Oil & frying the Sausages (whole) adding the garlic, herbs, chilli, onions, celery, carrot, beans, tomatoes, stock, seasoning then leaving for about 30 mins to simmer..

There were 4 in The Bed & the Little One said 'Roll over'

Now I throw all the ingredients into the Slow Cooker & leave to cook on Low for approx 6 hrs (or until the Carrots are done). It’ll cook in about 2.5 hrs on High! Then you can leave it on Warm & its perfect if people can’t all sit down to eat at the same time. I also chop the sausages up now before cooking or you could fish them out before serving & do this- it just makes more sense than having a Whole Sausage in a bowl with a fork and spoon, who’s bright idea was that anyway..

The only difference I can see with using the Slow Cooker is that A. Its healthier- you don’t have to use any Oil or Fry anything & B. Its easier

Family Sized

For the Garlic Bread- leave your Butter to soften to room temperature, mix in the Garlic & Parsley and put in the fridge till you needed- personally I like to SEE some garlic butter before it totally melts, but if you don’t leave it out of the fridge & it will melt in seconds. Toast the Bread just before serving (the Casserole will be hot enough to sit in a warmed bowl for a few minutes!) & smear on as much Garlic Butter as you like just don’t go out on a date afterwards..

No Lost Boys round here!

Lovely Garnish!

NB

If you decide to add any delicate vegetables such as Green Beans (like me) either add these half way through cooking, add them ready cooked at the end OR add Frozen ones half an hour before serving.. Otherwise they will be all limp & grey rather than bright green! I put the Tinned Beans in both at the beginning & near the end- it just depends how solid they are, if they are already turning to mush in the can I would put them in at the end, save them breaking up too much.. after all they only need warming through,someone else cooked them for you..

I finished mine of with a few drops of Pesto (hand made- it was already in the fridge!) and a garnish of Fresh Coriander (the only Herb I had left 😦 ) but it looks nice with some Flat Leaf Parsley also. Everything looks nicer with a bit of Garnish, humans included

Hey Pesto!

For the Compost Heap

Pretty Rosemary Flowers

Useful Rosemary Flowers!

I left the Rosemary Flowers on a shelf over night & Lo and Behold I now have about 15 Rosemary Seeds! How exciting (you can tell I’m not very bright when it comes to gardening) I shall be going straight back to clump of Rosemary in the ‘Wagon Wheel’ area of the garden & picking all of those flowers.. And I thought I’d just use them for Garnish! Doh..